In his speech accepting the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPY’s, Bruce Jenner used his experience to discuss the next generation of transgenders: “Trans people deserve something vital: They deserve your respect. If you want to call me names, make jokes, doubt my intentions, go ahead, because the reality is, I can take it. But for the thousands of kids out there, coming to terms with being true to who they are, they shouldn’t have to take it.”

I agree with Jenner. No kid should be bullied anywhere, for any reason, especially not in schools. But that doesn’t mean transgender kids should be free to make other kids acquiesce to environments in which they are uncomfortable. In schools now, adults and students alike are lobbying for preferential treatment for transgender kids, but their goals or accomplishments fail to acknowledge that every student deserves equal treatment.

The Bathroom Battlefield

It’s not enough to go to school and betransgender; emboldened by the U.S. Department of Education declaration that Title IX also applies to transgender students, said students are now demanding to use the restroom of the gender with which they wish to label themselves.

For example, in March, the school board in Stafford, Virginia, allowed a fourth-grade boy to use the girls’ restroom. After parents and local lawmakers complained, the school board reversed that decision.

The Atlantic reports, “Just last month, a 16-year-old transgender student filed a lawsuit against a school board in another Virginia district over a similar policy that required the student to use an “alternative” restroom instead.” Two other families of transgender children, one a first-grader in Colorado and another high-schooler in Maine, filed lawsuits—which were upheld—requiring schools to let transgender children to use the bathroom of their choice.

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